Off Camera, Obama White House Reveals Enemies List

In a rather obvious play to the Democratic base, Team Obama has been talking a lot about Republican svengali Karl Rove in recent days. This has irked Rove, an organizer of the Republican ad group American Crossroads, who has been telling basically everyone he speaks with publicly–a.k.a. Fox News, Mike Allen–that he has been placed on the White House “enemies list,” a reference to the infamous list kept by former President Richard Nixon. Here is what Rove said on Fox News Sunday:

“The president of the United States accused the Chamber of Commerce, and the Democratic National Committee in its new ad accuses Ed Gillespie and I of a criminal violation of our law by getting foreign money and spending it on American political campaigns, and they have not one shred of evidence to back up that baseless lie. This is a desperate and I think disturbing trend by the president of the United States to tar his political adversaries with some kind of enemies list, with being unrestrained by any facts or evidence whatsoever.”

Today, in an off camera briefing at the White House, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs held up the official White House enemies list. “I’m releasing our enemies list,” he said, holding up a blank, ripped 3 X 5 inch card.

The Wall Street Journal’s Jonathan Weisman was incredulous. “I’m not on it?” he objected.

“Nobody’s on it,” said Gibbs. “Now can I see the donors to American Crossroads?”